With Determination Comes Power
by Mindfulthoughts
Summary: As five l'cie start their journey, one is chosen by a powerful l'cie through their hidden motivation as worthiness. Can the support of determination from the chosen one help them with the trials to come ahead? Please read and review
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws on Final Fantasy 13 go to Square Enix, but i own new characters i add or idea twists**

 **Author note: This is my very first story on Fanfiction and i hope you enjoy the prologue, ant reviews are welcome :) please enjoy the start**

Prologue

Floating in a chasm of darkness were four humans, a boy with silver hair, a man with blonde hair wrapped in a bandanna, a dark gentleman with an afro and finally a woman with pink rose hair with a GC shoulder pad. Deep in the darkness was a crystal, as it shattered came the chime sound of bells. Then came out a large being and with his power, he wrapped the four with wires. Using the wires he branded the four as a pulse l'cie, on the wrist of the boy, the chest of the Afro man, the arm of the blonde and the high chest area of the woman.

In a last defiance before exploding the fal'cie turned a whole lake into crystal under the hanging edge. The humans were released as the fal'cie died and in moments they became unconscious while having a vision of their focus. Meanwhile on the crystallized Lake Bresha, a figure hooded and cloaked sits crossed leg on the surface.

"I sense that the five l'cie i saw in the bodhum vestige who fought Anima are coming" the figure spoke.

"I shall choose who will be worthy, then my focus will be fulfilled"

Through great determination, comes well deserved power" He closed his eyes as he awaits for the new arrivals.


	2. Chapter 1 The Decision

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to Square Enix for Final Fantasy 13, but i own any characters i add or idea twist.**

 **Author note: Hello everyone, i had this story up before but i made an error and it caused me to delete the story i'm afraid, so it's all been re published. I'm terribly sorry about this :( but i hope you enjoy the story and any reviews are welcomed**

Chapter 1

Five humans, Lightning, Snow, Hope, Sazh and Vanille were lying on the surface of Lake Bresha. Snow awakened by crying out a name, but then noticed where he is.

"Is this for real?" Snow said in a confused, shocked tone.

"This must be Lake Bresha?" Sazh questioned.

"What's going on? How did we get here?" Sazh demanded while looking at Lightning. Lightning replied back "How should I know?" "The whole Lake has turned to crystal" Vanille said. "The fal'cie must've done it before we crashed" Everyone looked at the lake in amazement, then Snow blurted out "No one survives a fall from that high, Serah saved us, she must've done it" "Serah? Listwn it's your fault she got" Lightning was saying until she noticed a cie'th behind her. "Watch out"

(Point of view of hooded figure)

I watched from the distance, the group of five l'cie. The man who froststriked the cie'th seemed very confused. But of course, I was like that when I first became one. They seem to be discussing about their brands and the boy seems shocked, very shocked. I guess that it's my turn to introduce myself.

(Third point of view)

After Hope's accusations and huddled somewhere else.

"It seems you have finally arrived" The group turned their heads to see a hooded figure. Lightning reached for her gunblade and held it, pointing it at him.

"Easy, I mean you no harm, only to talk"

"Why should we believe you?" Lightning said harshly. The hooded figure brought his hand up to reveal a brand on his neck.

"Like you, I too am a pulse l'cie" Everyone stared at him gobsmacked

"How did that happen?" Asked Sazh.

"I'll explain that later" "What I will explain is the reason why I am here" the hooded figure spoke. He slowly walked towards the group. "I am here because my focus wants me to choose someone" The group looked at him questionly "To choose someone for great power, but first what are your names?" Snow came forward with a bit of a smile.

"Well since we are all l'cie, I guess we should introduce ourselves" He places his hand on his chest. "I'm Snow, Snow Villiers"

"Vanille" The girl said with a smile. Snow looks at Hope.

"Short round?"

"Hope, Hope Estheim"

"Sazh Katzroy, good to meet you" The hooded figure turned to the woman.

"And you?" She turned away to not look at him, then Snow stated

"Bodhum Security Regiment, she goes by Lightning, last name's Farron, first name is anybody's guess"

"I see" "Well as for me, my name isn't important at this current point in time" Hope then spoke "So how can we trust you then?"

" I will watch you from afar, then I will decide who is worthy" He replied then disappeared. Everyone was shocked to see how he suddenly disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Snow asked, Lightning stated "Don't worry about him, we have our own focus to worry about" the group agreed with her then started to walk.

(Point of view of hooded figure)

Watching them from afar was a good idea, this will give me a good view on how they fight as well as the determination that drives them. But I'm sensing something from Hope. I might get a better view of it when I'm closer and be able to see into his eyes.

Minutes have passed and Lightning seems to have spotted something, it looks like a crystallized person. Must be somebody important because Snow shouted out the name Serah and started to dig at the surrounding crystals with the assistance of Vanille and Sazh. I can also sense his determination but his movements through battle make him seem overconfident. Lightning is starting to walk away but it seems to have led Snow to talk to her.

Then all of a sudden Lightning punched him in the face, it cracked a smile on my face to see such brutality. Moments later Lightning halted then Sazh started to walk off and lean on a crystal wall, I looked to the left and a PSICOM machine seems to be noticing them, it jumped and landed in front of the group. Now let's see how they do in this fight.

(Third point of view)

The five l'cie struggled in the conflict due to getting use to their powers. Hope seemed to be cowering a bit because of fear.

"I can't fight something like that" he stated, but he watched and admired how the others were fighting.

"Snow looks so confident, Vanille is able to hold her ground, Sazh seems to be struggling but capable and Lightning" "She looks so elegant, calm and smooth. It must've taken her years to train like that"

(Point of view of hooded figure)

I watch the battle and see something interesting, hope is staring at Lightning. It might not be the best to see but I can see the hint in his eyes. The determination to become as skilled and powerful as the soldier. This intrigues me greatly but there's something else. The battle was won and the group are talking again, I cannot hear them but Snow is left behind, must be something to do with the crystalized person. I carry on watching until they come to a stop.

(Third point of view)

Vanille walked towards hope. "Didn't you tell him? You'll regret it if you don't"

"Words won't change anything" Hope replied harshly "Next time, we meet, he'll know exactly how I feel" Hope said with a bit of anger and motivation.

"It is time" the four l'cie turned to see the hood figure. "One of you will now be chosen" Lighting came forward " But first you owe us an explanation on how you became a l'cie" the others agreed with her. The hooded man sighed.

"Very well" It began long ago, at the start of the war of the transgression" Lightning and the others were shocked to hear that. "But if that's true, how are you still alive?" Sazh stated. "My focus allowed me to live longer without aging because it knew that no one during that time was worthy even though the fal'cie recruited me to help with the war" Hope then asked "But why now?" The figure replied " I guess fate is on my side today as well as the gods sparing me from a cie'th end"

"Okay, that's a fair explanation but I don't trust you still" Lightning said.

"Don't worry, you are not worthy anyway because you may be skilled and talented but you are careless about others in a way" Lightning looked at him with anger. "Then what about Snow?" asked Vanille "He is strong and has determination but he doesn't think and is overconfident" "Sazh you have a lot of doubts about yourself and your focus which I didn't hear so don't worry" Sazh stroked the back of his head in embarrassment "Vanille your will is strong but you need to concentrate more"

"Oh okay" Vanille said. "As for Hope" He turned to face him. "Come here" Hope looked at him very nervously but Lightning gave him a push toward the figure.

Hold my hand" Hope did as he asked. "Yes I can see in your eyes, your heart and soul" "The high determination, motivation will and such spirit for two goals that you have" "But I also sense anger which you will use to drive yourself" Everyone looked at hope with a shocked face. "What now?" Questioned hope.

"Place your hand on your brand" Hope did so while the figure placed his hand on top of hope's "Can you feel the will power this brand contains? The elements that it holds within?" Hope simply stated "No"

"Try again but look deeper, feel more, let your determination drive you." Hope closed his eyes and thought about the skill that Lightning possess which he admires which filled him motivation. Then he thought about his mother, her death and the person he blames, this filled him with anger, determination and strength.

Everyone else noticed that five spheres suddenly appeared surrounding hope and the hooded man. They consisted of Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Water and Wind.

The hooded man started backing off away from Hope. "Don't worry hope, just stand still and let the elements join you" "But why?" Hope questioned "Wait and see" the man replied. The spheres started to go round hope then faster and faster until they all joined into hope. A flash of light suddenly appeared and everyone covered their eyes except for the hooded figure.

"The chosen one has been found!"


	3. Chapter 2 The Chosen One

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to Square enix for Final Fantasy 13 but i own any characters i add and idea twists.**

 **Author note: Hi fellow readers. i apologize for the wait for this chapter. This one had a lot of thought as well but i also had work in the way. I hope you enjoy this new chapter and any reviews are welcome. I would also like to thank Twilight AngelDemon and ChaoticNation for marking this story as a favourite, this has given me more inspiration to get this story finished. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter :)**

Chapter 2 The Chosen One

The blinding light faded away and the L'cie withdrew their hands from their eyes and were very shocked and surprised to see what was in front of them. Hope the 14 year old l'cie was kneeling on one knee, his hair was a bit brighter silver and his l'cie brand was connected by multiple silver veins that reached all the way to his face, expanding to different directions throughout his whole body.

He opened his eyes and slowly rose, Vanille gasped to see his emerald eyes shine a bit more. Hope looked at his arms and looked to the hooded figure.

"How has this happened?" he asked. The figure walked towards him and placed his hand on Hope's brand.

"For 500 years I have been developing my l'cie powers so it would suitable for my focus' intended chosen one, my l'cie brand could sense that you were worthy when I placed my palm on your brand" Hope was surprised by this.

"How is that possible?" he questioned

"My focus wanted me to choose someone to have great power if they are worthy"

"You've already said that but why am I worthy?" "It's your determination hope, the motivation, the determination and the anger that you will use to guide yourself for your two particular goals that your mind is set on" "People gain strength and achieve goals through many different methods hope and determination is one, through that you don't have the thought of giving up"

Hope understood the statement then asked another question, "So how does this work then?" The figure stepped aside "Think of an element, say blizzard for example, more commonly known as ice, open your palm then with all your strength and determination, think of your goals and slam it on the floor" Hope closed his eyes and thought of his goal to be as skillful as Lightning and the revenge for his mother's death.

He slammed his fist on the ground and spikes of ice poked out of the ground towards a crystal wall like a column of water fountains. Lightning and the others were surprised to see this occur. "Well I'll be, that is very interesting" Sazh stated. Vanille agreed but Lightning didn't say a word.

"He may have got new powers but he is still a child" She thought "But he has got a good new look though, I'll give him that" The figure walked towards hope and spoke "You see hope? This is what your determination has given you, but your powers will develop more through time so be patient" Hope turned and understood "I have one last gift for you" He brought up his hand and faced the palm of his hand to hope. A blue light came from his hand and entered hope.

"I have given you the power of absorption hope, you will understand what it does when the need for it comes, your powers will develop" Hope smiled "Thank you so much for all of this"

The figure smiled "it's fine Hope, it was my purpose to do so" Hope then frowned.

"I forgot to ask, how did you find us?" Lightning and the others agreed with Hope then looked at the figure. "I was watching you since your battle with the Fal'cie Anima" "So you watched us battle a pulse fal'cie knowing we'll become a l'cie?!" Lightning blurted out. The hooded figure nodded then said "Yes I did, but in order for my focus to be completed I had to let that happen. That may sound cruel but it seemed fate chose you to be l'cie, for what purpose I do not know"

Sazh looked down. "Oh okay" The hooded figure then started to glow and crystal suddenly started to appear on his feet. "What's happening?" Vanille gasped out while the crystal was slowly overtaking the figure's body. "My focus is complete Vanille, my eternal sleep is finally here after 500 years" Hope then stepped forward "But you never told us your name though" The figure smiled once again "I didn't say my name because everyone thought I died after the War of Transgression, it is best for it to stay unknown" "Hope, always remember to let your determination drive you, do not fail in that and you will have a power that you will have never known" "Good luck" After those words the crystal overtook his head and he fell into an eternal crystal state.

"Wow, what a start to our journey as l'cie eh?" Sazh pointed out "That may be but if we don't complete our own focus, things will turns out for the worse" Lightning stated. She then turned to Hope "Do you think your new powers will help us out with our focus?" she asked. Hope looked away a bit shyly then spoke "I hope so" "Well if you want to help, don't cower away like you did while we battled that PSCIOM elite" she said harshly before walking away. Hope was going to start crying but Sazh placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "Don't worry Hope, I'm sure you'll help out when you can and don't mind about Lightning" "She's probably still too emotional about Serah"

Vanille agreed then stated "He's right Hope, but we better catch up with Lightning" Both Sazh and Hope nodded then started jogging with Vanille to catch up with Lightning "I want to help out and I will become excellent in battle as you Lighning, I'll prove it" Hope thought to himself. Unbeknownst to Sazh, Vanille and Lightning the silver veins started to glow a dim light.


	4. Chapter 3 Discovering New Powers

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to Square Enix for ownership of Final Fantasy 13, however i own any idea twists or characters i add**

 **Author Note: Hi everyone i have chapter 3 up :) but once again work has delayed me sorry about that. i hope you all enjoy this chapter and any reviews are welcome. Once again i'm terribly sorry about the delay**

Chapter 3 Discovering New powers

The four l'cie have been battling countless of enemies throughout Lake Bresha, they were intrigued seeing how capable hope is with his new power. One moment they were caught within a mass group of bloodfang basses and a couple of breshan basses. It was difficult because the breshan ones kept summoning more bloodfangs.

"They keep coming!" Sazh shouted "I know" said Lightning. "Their weakness are lightning attacks but I can't get to the breshan bass" Hope saw how weak the other three were getting because even though Vanille and himself were healing Lightning and Sazh, they haven't got any defences. Sazh got knocked down and Vanille was wearing out, he looked at Lightning and saw she was running out of breath. He looked at her with determination and his anger fuelled him. He brought his hands up opposite of each other, cackles of lightning were being created and with one final cry a hoop of lightning was created and he flung it at the creatures.

It flew towards them and ricochet off of them like a frisbee and electrified them all. Sazh saw what happened after Vanille healed him up. "Woah, that was impressive Hope, you really are getting used to your new strength" Hope looked at Sazh and smiled "Thanks Sazh" "Don't you think so Lightning?" She looked at Hope then turned another direction "It was not bad, but we have to keep moving" The others sighed then carried on, they reached a certain view point where they saw a sanctum carrier ship depositing PSICOM troops. "They must be hunting down purge survivors" Sazh stated "Nowhere is safe for them now" "All because they shared a neighbourhood with a fal'cie, then they get treated like pulse tainted rats"

"People really hate pulse don't they?" Vanille said sadly "Not hate, more like fear" Sazh explained "Eden's always stepped in to correct their errors in judgement, guess humans aren't worth effort" "L'cie are not human" Hope said a bit harshly Vanille grabbed his arm "Listen you, that's enough!" She looked at his brand then to his silver veins and released his arm. All four noticed flagships fly past them in a fast speed "They're sealing off, we got to keep moving before we're caught in the net" Lightning stated, the others nodded so they carried on through Lake Bresha.

Further on ruins came into view, hoping they could find something to help them escape the four l'cie entered the ruins. Unfortunately they ran into some PSICOM officers, one of them being a PSICOM Executioner. "Lcie spotted!" "Take down that child first, he looks more menacing" the executioner ordered. Hope thought in that moment that his new power will be a strength as well as a curse because of his appearance. The officers ran forward with their stun rods but Sazh fired bullets at their feet to catch them off guard then Lightning sliced through them with her gunblade. It sliced through their armour sharply due to the amount of times she sharpens it.

The executioner was disappointed by the show. Fine I'll do this myself, he stood in a stance to charge up his manadrive, Lightning noticed this "He's charging up, attack him with spells" she ordered. Lightning charged as commando while Sazh and the others were ravengers. The spells hit the executioner but he didn't stagger. The charge finished and shot a bunch of fire spells with a fira spell following. Hope saw this coming and slammed his fist down to do his blizzard spell, the pillars of ice extinguished the flames and the executioner off his feet, so Lightning used this opportunity to jump in the air and used gravity to bring her sword down and stab the executioner. They sighed with relief and carried on, they encountered some pantherons but they were easy to deal with.

They came to a hallway surrounded by crystalized fire and Vanille got excited by the room, so excited that she started running ahead. "Be careful!" Lightning shouted "I want to look around" Vanille said excitedly. She started walking off humming to herself all happy, Sazh and Hope were worried and Lightning had an uneasy feeling. Suddenly Vanille was screaming and was running towards them, Lightning could see something was chasing her, it seemed to be a Garuda Interceptor. Sazh caught Vanille and stood to start the battle. The interceptor started using Lightning attacks and vanilla hastily healed Sazh and Lightning with cure. "If it deals lighting damage then hit it with other spells" Lightning commanded. Vanille, Sazh and Hope nodded and started using their ravage spells while Lightning used ruin.

The interceptor got in close and swiped the l'cie with it's wings, Lightning jumped backwards while Sazh, Hope and Vanille were knocked back. Vanille and Hope started casting cure while Sazh was still casting spells. The interceptor flew back but Lightning casted a few more Ruin spells at the interceptor followed up by Sazh's spells. The interceptor felt the pain of the spells and barged through the pillars.

"What's it doing?" questioned Sazh "It's charging" Lightning explained "Charging? Charging for what?" "It's last moments" Lightning charged forward to catch up with the interceptor. This time though the interceptor created a barrier around itself. "That may be a bit difficult" Sazh blurted out "Hmph, no matter" Lightning simply said. She jumped and striked the barrier but it simply bounced her back. She then cast some ruin spells, they didn't bounce back but no damage. "It doesn't reflect spells so we should cast indeed?" Hope questioned Lightning and the others nodded. Lightning casted ruin while Sazh, hope and vanilla used their ravenger spells.

The interceptor stood it's ground with the barrier and swiped at the l'cie, they stumbled but were healed. They carried on casting but the barrier was still stable "There seems to be no damage to it" Sazh stated. The interceptor started to fly in circles then stopped up above. It was charging for a harsh lightning attack. The attack was released and the group stood their ground. Lightning held up her gun blade to defend herself but Hope saw that would do no good. He didn't want to see Lightning get hurt so he stood in front her and held his hands up "Hope? What are you doing?" He turned his head to see Lightning "Wanting to be brave as well as defend you" Unbeknownst to him Lightning gasped at what he said but it soon turned into a small smile.

The attack impacted on the group but something happened that surprised the others, the attack was being absorbed into Hope's hands. "I guess we now know what that guy meant by when you needed that power" Hope smiled and nodded, with the extra power that the absorption has given him he casted a Blizzaga spell at the barrier and it was surrounded in ice. With another attempt he casted a firaga spell at the ice and it all shattered along with the barrier. The interceptor roared with anger while Sazh and Vanille congratulated Hope. "It's not over yet" The interceptor did another harsh lightning attack in annoyance but hope once again absorbed it with his hands and his silver veins glowed. This time though he casted an aeroga spell and it swirled the interceptor round and round until it was flung into a pillar. It landed onto the floor then Lightning jumped and stabbed her gunblade straight down. Sazh and Vanille cheered for Hope but he felt a bit weak and was going to fall but Lightning caught him in time.

He looked up and saw her eyes "Woah for a person who's a bit cold Lightning's got beautiful eyes" Lightning stared into his shining emerald eyes "Those eyes have got a lovely glow" Sazh interrupted them "Hope are you alright?" Lightning got out of her stare and helped hope stand. "I'm fine Sazh, I think all that heavy spell casting took a toll on me" "Well don't overdo it okay Hope, but that was an impressive display" Vanille smiled and nodded "Yeah it was spectacular" "Thanks guys" Hope said with appreciation "Even I got to admit it, that was an excellent display of power" Lightning said. Hope turned to her surprised then smiled "Thanks Lightning" I think that I'm starting to impress her he thought.

After the conversation they all saw a ship docked on a pillar, "check it out" Vanille said excitedly. "Yeah but knowing our luck, it's probably missing an engine" Sazh said with a nod "Oh you shouldn't be so negative" Vanille said hoping to cheer up Sazh. The group walked towards the ship, unbeknownst to them a silver owl was watching them from afar.


	5. Chapter 4 The Vile Peaks

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to Square Enix for ownership over Final Fantasy 13, however i own all idea twists and made up characters in this story**

 **Author Note: Hello fellow readers i know it's been a few days since i last updated but it hasn't been easy to update because of work being a pain and this chapter had a lot of thought into. I've also been playing Final Fantasy 13 on playstation but that's my fault. It's been helping me catch up with the story though. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter and any reviews are welcome, also i might try to finish a new chapter tomorrow :)**

Chapter 4 The Vile Peaks

Alarms were set off as the ship flew from it's dock, other PSICOM ships were following them shooting their guns. Sazh was piloting the ship dodging the enemy fire, further ahead unfortunately was a group of skytanks priming their main cannons. They fired their main cannons and Sazh was fortunately able to dodge them. "Give me that!" Lightning shouted. She took control of the ship's lever and fired upon the skytanks. She was able to destroy one of the skytanks. "Did we get them?" Hope asked fearfully. "We got one of them" Lightning replied "They're still on us" Hope stated, again fearfully. Sazh was fighting Lightning over the controls "Stop that" He smacked her away "Do you want to die?" he questioned.

The ships carried on their firing "C'mon give me a break!" "Then let me" Lightning blurted out "No thank you" Sazh replied He flew the ship towards an area with two opposite cliffs, he shot the left one so the rock rubble would fall on the enemy ships behind them. After that he flew the ship far up in the sky. "Oh for the love of all that's good" Sazh said while thumping the controls, when he did that a screen appeared.

It was projecting a news reporter talking about the purge and the success it made for making new homes for pulse migrants. It later showed a man in robes talking about no alternatives then soon came another reporter saying that Primarch Dysley is unsure if any future purges are relevant. Vanille pointed at the screen "Uh who is this guy?" she questioned. Sazh nearly slammed his head "Arrgh" "I mean, what do they teach kids these days?" "He's Galenth Dysley Sanctum primarch, murder in chief" he stated. "Just another tool of the Fal cie" Lightning said coldly.

They carried on flying until seeing a fal'cie known as Phoenix. "Cocoon's very own light in the sky" Sazh simply said. They heard gunfire and noticed the enemy ships were back "These guys again?" "Hope?! Can't you like use your power to influence the wind to sway these ships away?" Sazh questioned "I don't have that sort of strength or focus yet Sazh" Hope replied, I wish I did he thought. "Head there, we may lose them" Lightning commanded. As she said Sazh flew the ship into the fal cie, still dodging all the gunfire but one of the ships blew up from impact by one of the fal cie's rays "I like this fal'cie" Sazh said but unfortunately a section of their ship got hit and they were falling from the sky.

The ship crashed and the four l'cie were lying on the floor. Lightning was the first to wake up and looked at the others, she placed her hand on Hope's shoulder "Hey" she calmly said but noticed some movement. Minutes later Vanille started moving around then awoke, she noticed Lightning in her battle stance then moved to Hope and Sazh "Wake up! You've got to wake up!" she shouted while shaking them. They slowly opened their eyes and saw Lightning, all three got up and hurriedly joined her. They were facing a group of pantherons, fortunately they were defeated easily since their powers got a bit better since they first started.

"Ahhh glad that's over" Vanille said, she andSazh sat on a rock surface while Lightning was still standing "What? No break?" Sazh said tiredly "They're tracking us" Lighting replied back "I know I know, but we aren't soldiers" We don't have your kind of stamina" "You've got enough to complain" she replied harshly. After that she carried on, Hope looked at the two sat down "Go on you better catch up, otherwise you'll get left behind" Sazh said. Hope nodded "Okay" after that he went ahead, he came up to a large object that looked like some sort of giant gear and he studied it carefully.

"Hmmm it looks quite big to climb, perhaps I could try to use my power to conjure a wind that could help me levitate or fly" Hope opened his palms and faced them downwards, he was thinking of the aero spell but only a little bit of it was coming out. "I guess that I need more umph" "Better start climbing" Hope started to climb slowly with one leg after another. He eventually got over and started catching up with Lightning, she turned to see him. "Just you?" she questioned "I guess so" he replied She turned again to carry on, as they carried on they fought some pulsework soldiers and Thextrons. There was a few until they reached a large sort of wall.

"You know where we're going right?" Hope asked while sitting on a rock "I've been here on missions before" she replied "Missions? But nothing to do with the Purge though?" Lighting turned to look at him "The purge was PSICOM's baby" Hope looked at her confused "Our army is split into two branches, the Public Safety and Intelligence Command known as PSICOM and the Guardian Corps" Lightning stated "Guardian Corps?" "Yes, I was Guardian Corps, Bodhum Security Regiment" Hope then asked "But if you were Guardian Corps, then why were you on the train?" Lightning simply replied "For Serah"

Lightning explained that she quit her job in order to get on the train so that she could reach the pulse fal'cie in time before it would be taken to Pulse out of her reach. "So you got on that train to save your sister? I could never do that" he murmured "It's not a question of can or can't, there are some things in life you just do" Lightning stated. Hope looked upwards and stood "Lightning" he watched as Lightning calmly climbed up the wall and she walked on after she reached the top. "She left me" he spoke sadly

(Hope's point of view)

I sat here on the rock pondering but I looked up again to stare at the wall. It was great on how easily she conquered that wall, I stood up and walked towards it. I thought of my attempt to fly up to that gear then to Lightning's statement, it's not a question of can or can't, there are some things in life you just do. I closed my eyes and focused again, I once again cast some aero spells but to no avail nothing. I thought of my task to become as skilful as Lightning and seeing her success with this wall was brilliant. I thought of both her statement and my goal this time.

(Third point of view)

Hope once again closed his eyes and did another attempt. This time however his silver veins started to glow and as he cast aero he started to slowly lift up from the ground. He opened his eyes to see what was going on "I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" he said with a smile. He was halfway up the wall until Sazh and Vanille arrived "Wow Hope I didn't know you could fly!" Vanille shouted He gasped loudly and lost concentration, due to this he lost the spell and fell. Hope landed on the rock surface on his buttocks "Owww!" he shouted. Sazh and Vanille ran towards him with worry "Are you okay Hope?" Sazh questioned, Hope stood up while rubbing his bottom "I'm fine, just a bit in pain" "Since when could you fly?" "I saw Lighting climb this wall with ease and I thought of something she said as well as a certain goal that I've got in mind" "So you got left behind then?" Sazh asked, Hope simply nodded. "This is pointless, can't keep up, can't get home" Vanille walked towards him "We can get you home" "I don't have one, now that mum is-""What about your dad?" Vanille questioned Hope walked a bit then explained that his mother and he only went to Bodhum to see the fireworks and that PSICOM sealed the town after discovering the vestige so they couldn't get back to Palumpolum. "They forced us onto the train with everyone else" "My mum, she was frantic. She wanted to get us home, so she tried to fight. She got tricked by Snow" "He used her!" he said with anger and his silver veins glowed a bit dimly

"We've got to get you home, your dad's got to be worried" Vanille said calmly "Let him worry, why should I care? He doesn't" Hope said with disbelief "Any father cares" Sazh blurted out "Sazh?" Vanille asked "It's nothing, forget it" Sazh replied. He walked towards a machine and pushed a lever. The machine released a claw and pulled a metal ledge towards it from the opposition. "Don't worry, we'll get you home and your dad will be happy to see you" Sazh said calmly. The three l'cie walked towards the ledge but Sazh turned to Hope "Would you like to try to fly up to the top again while Vanile and I use the ledge and wall?" he questioned "I could give it another try" Hope closed his eyes and did the same as last time.

He was starting to hover above the ground slowly but the concentration was lacking, Sazh was seeing this "Concentrate Hope, I'm sure that you don't want to fall again" he said in support. Hope nodded and concentrated harder, the more thought he put in his silver veins started to glow and he started to fly higher and higher until he reached the top. He calmly landed on his feet and Sazh and Vanille caught up by climbing up the ledges. "Well done Hope, I'm guessing that flight is one of your new powers like absorption" Sazh said to congratulate Hope "It seems that way" Hope replied. "C'mon, let's go and find Lightning" Sazh and the others carried on still amazed by Hope's accomplishment.


	6. Chapter 5 The Group Splits

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to Square Enix for ownership over Final Fantasy 13, however i own any characters i create and idea twists**

 **Author note: Hi everyone i did have most of this chapter finished on the 3rd but i finished the rest today. I hope you enjoy this chapter and any reviews are welcome :) Have fun reading**

Chapter 5 The Group Splits

The group of three l'cie carried on through the Vile peaks, they fought many enemies like Pulsework soldiers, Thextrons, inucubuses and succubses. Each battle they had made them grow in strength slowly as well as developing their magic. They came to a pathway and there was a lot of pulse debris surrounding the area and some further on in the distance. Vanille saw a ship in the distance "Isn't that a-? " "A warship from pulse" Sazh interrupted. "They made it this far?" Vanille wondered "Of course not, not during the war and not since" Sazh explained "They might have tried, but none of their forces made it into Cocoon" "They only damaged the outer rim, then the Sanctum's fal'cie pushed them back"

Sazh gave Vanille a questioning look "What, did you sleep through history?" Vanille simply giggled "More or less" She turned to Hope "So what's a ship from Pulse doing here?" "When the war was over, people couldn't live near the outer rim anymore. In places like the Hanging edge. So the fal'cie gathered the scraps from Pulse and used them for rebuilding here. A bunch of garbage was all that was left" Hope explained "Who'da thunk? A pulse fal'ce and who knows what mixed in with all the trash" Sazh said interestingly "Who'da thunk" Vanille pondered. They carried on through the Vile Peaks after the history talk, as they furthered on many more encounters with pulse soldiers, succubuses and inucubuses occurred.

After walking up a ramp Lightnig jumped down from a ledge. "Hey, welcome to the party!" Sazh said excitedly "Miss us?" Vanille questioned. Lightning walked on without saying a word "Would it kill her to smile?" Sazh said annoyed, Hope stood behind them. **There must be some reason why she doesn't,** he thought **must be Serah, I know how she feels because of my mother**. The three caught up with Lightning and carried on, Sazh's knowledge on how to work pulsian machinery helped them advance through the peaks. Through battles they could see that even Lightning's commando skills were improving. "Hurry up!" Lightning shouted while they were jogging up a steep hill pathway.

They stopped to see a bunch of gears in a pile with some sort of machine behind it. "What do you suppose that is?" Lightning wondered. Suddenly the sound of working was heard and the machine smacked the gears away. "What is that?" Sazh questioned "Pulse armament" "That's bad for us isn't it?" "You have eyes don't you" Lightning replied coldly. Everyone took their battle stances and Hope started casting protect on himself and the others. Sazh used his l'cie powers to cast Libra, a power capable of finding out weaknesses of an enemy. "Vanille use your magic to cast deprotect and deshell because the armament is weak to it" Vanille nodded and started casting. The pulse machine shuddered because it took effect "Not bad" Lightning said. Sazh, Hope and Vanile changed to Ravenger while Lightning was commando,she attacked the armament but her gunblade grazed the metal. The three ravengers casted their spells and they took an effect because of the deshell, the machine shuddered a bit but in defiance it swiped it's arms to smack the l'cie.

It used it's right arm first, Lightning jumped above it but it hit Hope, Vanille and Sazh. As Lightning landed she saw the left arm coming towards her, she ducked just barely because she felt the metal sway past her head. The other three carried on casting their spells but the armament walked forwards and slammed both arms on the ground making everyone fall to the ground because of the impact as well as made their ears ring due to the loud sound of the metal hitting the ground. Hope and Vanille changed to medics and starting to cast cure on everyone. "Thanks" Sazh said gratefully but Lightning carried on. Sazh could see that her gunblade wasn't doing a lot of damage "Have this Lightning" She turned to him and Sazh casted bravery on her. She could feel her strength rising and attacked the armament again, this time though her gunblade was leaving dents on the machine.

Sazh saw this happen so he casted Faith on himself, Vanille and Hope, they felt their will getting stronger so they casted more spells at the armament. The armament was stumbling due to Lightning attacking as well as the strong impact of the other three's spells with the help of suffering deprotect and deshell. In an act of defiance it opened a hatch and fired a large blazing metal sphere on the ground. The ground crumbled away and everyone fell down along with the armament landing on an underground surface. As Hope and Vanille healed themselves, Lighting and Sazh, the armament stood and started spraying steam over itself. Due to this the debuffs were removed "Well that doesn't help" Sazh stated, they stood in their battle stances again but the armament came towards them and sprayed fire side to side.

The l'cie were hurt but Hope then started to cast shell to help protect themselves, everyone started attacking again but there was less effect due to the removal of the debuffs. Hope didn't like this so he slammed his fist on the ground to do his blizzard power, the spikes came up and smacked the armament into the air. He bought his hands up to do his thunder spell and threw the big hoop at the armament, the thunder cackled away at the metal being absorbed due to metal being a conductor and the armament landed with a massive thud. "Did that do it?" Hope said

Unfortunately the armament stood again and did the same attack as last time with the metal sphere. It exploded on the ground and the l'cie were blown back, Sazh, Hope and Vanille hit a wall while Lightning landed on her feet kneeling but was breathing heavily. "It sure is strong" Lightning spoke. "Are we done for?" Sazh asked "Don't give up just yet" Lightning replied, Hope removed his boomerang, healed himself and walked forward. "Hope! What are you doing?" Vanille shouted "I've got an idea but I need to get on top of it" "How are you going to do that?" Lightning asked "But first" Hope spoke. The armament did it's fire attack again hoping to burn them but Hope absorbed the flames with his hands and his silver veins started glowing. "And what's that supposed to do?" Lightning asked being confused

Hope didn't reply and closed his eyes, he faced his palms to the ground and started casting aero suddenly lifting him from the ground. Now in flight Hope flew to the top of the armament and landed on it's back. "Since when was Hope able to fly?" Lighting asked being surprised "He got himself to do that when he saw how amazingly you climbed that big wall earlier ago" Sazh replied. Lighting gasped and watched Hope. The armament noticed the being on it's back and attempted to shake Hope off. "Hope hang on!" Vanille shouted "I am" he shouted back, he noticed a control switch that turns on the armament. He casted thunder on the switch but due to the absorption he did the thunder spell was more stronger that it travelled with the armament and started destroying it's insides. All of a sudden the armament shuddered then collapsed flinging Hope onto the ground "Hope!" Sazh and Vanille shouted while running to him. "Are you okay?"Sazh asked, Hope stood up slowly and healed himself "Yeah I'm okay" he replied. "How did you know that would work?" Lightning asked. Hope turned his head to look at her "It may be pulsian but every machine has a control matrix or a switch so I used thunder to have it enter the machine using that" Lightning showed a tiny hint of being impressed "Well done" she smiled, Hope smiled back "Thanks Lightning" "Sazh said that you got yourself to fly by seeing me climb that wall, is it true?" Hope looked away from Lightning with a blush of embarrassment "Yes it is because I thought of the way you did it so calmly and skilfully so I thought I could conquer it with my own sort of skill" he replied.

Lightning had a small smirk on her face "So you're admiring my skill are you?" "You could say that, yeah" he replied. It seems I have an admirer she thought. Sazh interrupted them "Pulse is crawling with things like that isn't it?" "Not even the corps have intel on Pulse, soldiers on the field fight blind" she replied "But don't you need to know what you are up against?" he asked "Target's a target" Lightning stated "You like to keep it simple don't you" "I stick to my goal" Hope wondered about that "As long as you have a goal, you can fight?" he asked "You can stay alive" she confidently stated, the group saw a pathway and went ahead and it lead them to a pond with a ship wreckage.

Lightning and Sazh were sitting on the side of the wreckage "Not much of a future for us, huh?" "Hard to picture a happy ending" She replied "We don't even know where to go" "I do" she said as she stood up "Up there" Sazh saw that she was staring at a light in the sky "Eden?" "The sanctum's seat of power" "Oh that's a great idea, just charge right in there. Give'em a taste of l'cie terror!" he said while laughing softly but he saw her serious face. "You serious" "It's either die or turn Cie'th" "I'm not dying a fal'cie slave" she said determingly "So, what are you going to do?" Sazh asked "Destroy it" she simply stated "What! Are you crazy?" "If something happens to Eden it's lights out Cocoon!" Sazh said worriedly. He looked at Lightning with a questionable face "You want that"

After that Vanille intervened "But what about Serah? She said to save Cocoon. It might even be our focus to make sure Cocoon stays-" "Our focus doesn't matter! " Lighting shouted "Better to pick your path and keep moving" Hope was lost in thought over that statement "Don't worry I'm after the Sanctum, I'm not out to destroy the world" "If it did come to that, wonder if our 'hero' would try to stop me?" Lightning pondered "You want to fight Snow now? Just like that and you're enemies?" Sazh questioned "Next time we meet, we might be too" she replied. After that she turned and walked past Vanille and Hope and jumped off a ledge. Hope simply stared at her and turned to the others "Snow deserves it!" he shouted with a bit of anger and started running off to catch up with Lightning. If I want to become as skilful as Lighting and take my revenge on Snow, I must follow her he thought while his silver veins were glowing.


	7. Chapter 6 A New Partner

**Author's note: All copyright goes to square enix for Final fantasy 13 but i own all characters i make up and idea twists. I can't believe that it has been so long since i uploaded a chapter for this story, complete nightmare. I've gotten back into this story now so i should be able to complete this. Any reviews are welcome.**

Chapter 6 A New Partner

Lightning was walking calmly until she heard "Wait up!" She turned around to see Hope has caught up with her. "I'm going with you" he stated "I can't babysit you anymore" she replied "I can fight, I'm not afraid" he confidently said. "My new power can help you lightning" she was going to reply but heard footsteps. She turned to see a group of soldiers. "Great, a PSICOM hit squad" she sarcastically stated. One of the soldiers pulled out a remote control and pressed the button, junk metal behind the two l'cie blew up and fell into a pile blocking their exit. Lightning and hope took their stance and the soldiers readied their guns.

Immediately Hope casted protect on himself and lightning, the squad fired their bullets, fortunately the bullets bounced from the protect but hope and lightning got a hint of pain and recoil. Hope slammed his fist on the ground to raise ice pikes from the ground towards the soldiers and knocked them to the ground. Lightning raced towards the fallen soldiers and sliced them with her gunblade. "Not bad" she stated towards Hope "It seems that your power may prove useful" Hope looked up to her "Really? Thanks" he cheerfully said. He walked past her a bit and noticed that she was looking at the debris "Lightning? Are you worried about the others? I'm sure they got away okay" Lightning turned to see him "So can you if you leave now" she stated "With me it'll be fight after fight, I don't know how it'll end. It's anybody's guess"

Hope listened and looked down "I know but I need to be stronger" he replied, **"Also to be as skilful as you"** he thought "Lightning" "Call me Light" "What's the plan from here?" he questioned "Through the Gapra Whitewood to Palumpolum, we'll find transport to Eden" she answered. "I live in Palumpolum, I can show you all the shortcuts" he replied cheerfully. "No side trips" "No need, I don't think l'cie are welcome at home" they started jogging onwards. They encountered more soldiers but with a mixture of Hope's synergist spells and Lightning's commando attacks they weren't difficult to deal with. Suddenly they encountered an Uhlan machine, it noticed them both and readied it's guns. Hope casted protect for both himself and lightning, "Cast libra Hope so we know it's weaknesses" Lightning ordered.

Hope acknowledged this and cast it. "It's weak to thunder and water attacks Light" Hope said. Lightning nodded and attacked with aquastrike and sparkstrike. The Uhlan fired it's guns but Light quickly dodge out of the way. Hope noticed that Light's water attacks was covering the machine in water so he bought his hands up opposite to each other and created his hoop of lightning and threw it towards the machine. It contacted with it and was jolting the Uhlan badly since water doesn't mix with thunder. Lightning slammed the Uhlan with a sparkstrike and with the extra kick it destroyed the machine's insides. "I'm starting to improve slowly with this new strength" hope said "Not surprising since you can absorb and fly" Lightning replied "But don't get too overconfident" she said "Okay understandable" hope acknowledged.

They pressed onwards and saw two PSICOM soldiers near a powered down Pulse armament. "Any sign of the l'cie?" "Not yet" one soldier turned his head and saw them "Huh who's there?" he ordered. Both of them ran towards the two unfortunately Lightning took them out quick with her gunblade so they wouldn't contact other soldiers. Hope walked towards the machine "What was PSICOM doing here?" he questioned "Probably thought we tried to use it to escape" Light replied "But what if it works?" hope was curious and pointed his hands towards the ground to cast aero to help him fly up to the top of the armament "Don't touch anything" Lightning said "Leave it!" she shouted. Hope cried out as the armament turned on and started walking "I told you to leave it" "Stop, stop already!" Hope ordered and the armament halted "I think I've got this" he got the armament to walk to the tall metal object and got the armament to hit it so it made a bridge.

Lightning followed slowly so Hope could clear a path through, "Not a bad idea it seems" Hope carried on barging through pulse clockwork soldiers and barricades until he stopped at a large dip with big steps. The armament moved one foot but it slipped causing to fall carrying Hope with it and Hope landed on his back. "Nice landing" Lightning sarcastically stated "Hold up a minute, still a bit winded" he said in a hurt way "You're too soft" after that they carried on foot


	8. Chapter 7 Odin

**Author's note: All copyright goes to square enix for FF 13 but i own all characters that i make up and idea twists. Here is a new chapter i was able to complete within the same day as the previous chapter. This proves how serious i am in getting this fully completed. Any reviews are welcome and i hope you enjoy this one :)**

Chapter 7 Odin

Battle after battle with more PSICOM soldiers until they reached a metal bridge, Lightning was further up ahead and heard Hope grunt after he fell over.

"This isn't working" hearing that Hope slowly looked up to her worried "I mean you're a liability, you'll just slow me down" she stated "What?" hope said worriedly "I'm sorry but I can't protect you when uggh" she was interrupted because her brand started to burn "You can't leave me here, you got to take me with you!" hope shouted "Enough!" Lightning retorted "The whole world is against us" she grunted as she fell on one knee "I can barely keep myself, let alone some helpless kid!" You may have a good new look and new strength" "But if you want to get tough, do it on your own!" after that last outburst a wide pink circle enveloped around her, she noticed this and darted off and turned.

A rose appeared and revealed a being with hints of golden armour, white clothing, a shield and a double bladed kind of sword and Light could not believe her eyes "This cannot be happening" she blurted out in annoyance. The being noticed Hope and charged towards him, hope got all fearful and fell backwards. "Look out!" Light shouted, she got in time to block the being's attack and pushed him back. Hope got up and prepped his boomerang. The being casted doom a spell that counts down to a certain death on Lightning. She could feel that her life force was slowly weakening, Hope casted protect and shell to protect themselves from physical attacks and magical just in case.

Lightning charged and attacked with her gunblade but the being blocked with it's shield and pushed her back then charged at her with a seismic strike. This resulted in her getting smacked against a huge rock. Hope casted cure on her to help her "don't worry light I've got you" "Thanks" Light stated. The being placed his attention on hope and commenced his flourish of steel combo on him, the protect took the hit but hope grunted in pain after each hit. Lightning saw an opening and attacked the being from behind, it stopped it's attack and shuddered forwards feeling the impact of lightning's gunblade.

It turned quickly and caught her gunblade in it's hand, lightning struggled to free her gunblade from the being's grip but to no avail the being pulled the gunblade from lightning and threw it to the left and casted thundara at Lightning. She cried in pain and fell on one knee. Hope got his concentration back and saw that Lightning was unarmed and hurt, he noticed that the being was about to attack with another thundara "Light!" he shouted while running towards her. The being casted his spell, fortunately hope was absorbing it with his hands and his silver veins started glowing. Light saw the glow and looked at hope "Hope?" "What are you doing?" "Helping you light, that's what I am doing" **Really? After what I said to him?** She thought.

After the spell was absorbed the being jumped backwards in surprise, hope in anger seeing Light in pain casted a powerful thundaga spell at the being. It managed to pull up it's shield but the contact pushed it back along the ground and fall backwards. Lightning saw this chance and grabbed her gunblade from the floor, she grunted in pain because the doom spell was having a major effect on her. The being got back up but got hit by a hoop of thunder and was knocked far back again into the ground. Lightning saw this and looked at Hope seeing his silver veins glowing and small bits of thunder cackling from his hands. "You've got an opening Light!" Hope shouted. She nodded and ran towards the being, it slowly got back up but Lightning striked his hand the one carrying his weapon disarming him with all the strength she had left and placed the tip of her gunblade towards the being's neck. "You have been defeated being, now submit!" she ordered. The being knelt down bowing to her and jumped, it slowly transformed into gestalt form becoming a horse, after that it disappeared into lightning's brand. Lightning grunted in pain and fell on one knee holding her chest.

"Lightning!" hope ran towards her kneeling in front of her and looked at his brand "Your brand looks different. Was that an eidolon? Like l'cie can summon?" "Magic mumbo jumbo, I must've hit my head on that purge train" she stood back up with a calm expression. "Am I really in your way?" hope asked worriedly. Lightning placed her gunblade in her holster and walked past him without saying anything. "I'll do better! I'll try harder, I'll- "Hope" lightning interrupted "We'll toughen you up" Hope looked at her surprised "I'm sorry, about before" she said, with that hope cheered up and caught up with her.

 **After his actions in that battle with that eidolon and helping me, he deserves to be toughened up** she thought. They walked on and encountered more PSICOM soldiers with Uhlan machines, "Hope why don't you step aside and let me test out my new eidolon?" "Sure light, you deserve to" he replied. She placed her hand in front of her chest and a crystal rose appeared crying out Odin!, she threw it in the air and broke the crystal with her gunblade revealing the mighty eidolon. The soldiers shuddered in fear and got really nervous, Lightning and Odin charged. The battle ended quite quickly due to the mixture of their skill, "We'll stop here, I'll look around and you rest here" Hope nodded in agreement and rest against a huge rock.

Lightning came back to see him asleep, she gasped to see how peaceful he was and sat against a rock opposite to him. "Mum?" hope mumbled in his sleep "Tsst, not by a long shot" light replied. But what really shocked her though was another thing hope mumbled "I'll be as skilful as you Light, I admire you" she smiled a bit "I guess I really do have an admirer, that's nice I guess" It gave her a warmth sort of feeling but she dismayed it thinking it was nothing.


	9. Chapter 8 The Gapra Whitewood

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws goes to square enix for FF 13 but i own any characters i make up and idea twists.**

 **Author's note: Hello readers i have uploaded another chapter for this story yippee :) I hope you enjoy this new one and any reviews are welcome. i would be very interested in your opinions.**

Chapter 8 The Gapra Whitewood

Holding her gunblade Lightning walked to the side and knelt down, motioning her to hand to Hope to follow her. He slowly joined her side "Can't believe we made it" with a bit of glee. They both turned to see the door behind them close "That'll close off pursuit" she stated "But aren't there troops on this side?" Hope questioned "We can't relax just yet" "Right, we press on" Lightning replied "I'll take point, you watch our backs" "Actually" hope interrupted "Why don't you let me take point?" he questioned. Lightning turned to see a bit of hesitation on his face "Can you handle it?" Hope jogged in front of her confidently "It's not a question of can or can't" he confidently said while his veins glowed dimly "Now you're learning" Lightning nodded her head for hope to move forward "Keep your eyes front, I'll watch the rear" "Got it" Hope nodded in acknowledgement. Light smiled after he said that but pondered **His silver veins glow when he's confident and got determination, must be proof that determination drives you like that robed character said back at Lake Bresha**

As they moved on they encountered a squad of frag leeches, with Lightning's skill and Hope's growing magic potential they were easy to deal with, further on were Thextrons but with the experience of fighting them at the vile peaks they were easy pickings. Hope stopped near an elevator "Have you been here before? On duty I mean" he questioned "No, this place is covered by the woodlands observation battalion" Light replied She turned to see hope "You scared?" she questioned. Hope hesitated a bit "Not really, but I'm ready to fight if I have to" he walked forward but Light showed him a hunting knife handle "To keep you safe" she stated.

Hope slowly took it from her hand "I'll want it back" Light turned and walked towards the elevator "Lightning. I'm glad I followed you. By myself I would've had no chance" she acknowledged hope's words but carried on and stood on the elevator. Hope joined her side and pressed a button so the elevator moved upwards. It stopped and they got off onto another pathway and continued forward. Hope and Lightning followed the lights that were shown on the pathway and saw a blockade on the left side of a two way path. "It seems that we have turn right Light" hope stated "Yes it seems because this block is covering a behemoth on the other side" Hope nodded to this and walked to the right direction.

The two l'cie carried on their mission, encountering more frag leeches, thextrons and even vespids. Each battle was slowly improving their skills and strength. Hope heard a hint of sounds like engine sounds "What's wrong?" Light asked. Hope grabbed her hand "We've got to hide!" he shouted while pulling her to hide under a large tree silver leaf. They noticed three soldiers on velocycles but suddenly left. Hope was relieved to see them leave so soon and turned his head to see he was holding Light's hand "Sorry" he apologised as he was blushing a bit. "It's fine" she replied, "they're not even looking for us, I mean we're l'cie and we're on the loose" Light understood his statement "PSICOM is keeping it all under wraps, they don't want their failure publicized" hope slowly understood what she's saying "Better to lose us than lose their pride" "So the other soldiers don't know about us, right?" he replied to that statement.

"Right" Light acknowledged "They don't know anything about any fugitives" Light walked on to another elevator and Hope joined up with her. He pressed the button and the elevator operated to go downwards as it stopped they got off to continue onwards. As they continued they noticed a big wall but seemed a bit like a door because of an orange glow. "That's one of the bulkhead fal'cie, stay on guard" Light stated. She was right because there was an alpha behemoth and two thextrons, noticing this Hope casted protect on himself and Light. They took out the thextrons first since they have very good knowledge on them unlike the behemoth. "Hope, cast libra to help us out" Hope nodded casted the libra on the behemoth discovering it's secrets and weaknesses.

"It's weak to water and thunder so we should do a mixture of those attacks Light" With this new information it helped because Light started doing a mixture of aqua and sparkstrikes damaging the behemoth since those attacks mix badly to do a lot of damage. She was so focused on doing those attacks that she realised that the behemoth got into a heave attack position and flung her into the air with it's horn. "Light!" hope shouted as he saw this. She landed with a hard thud "I'm okay Hope, concentrate on the behemoth" she ordered. He focused his attention on the behemoth noticing small hints of water remained and bought his hands together to create his hoop attack. He threw it at the bioweapon animal and impacted on it covering the whole being with thunder damaging it immensely and fell.

Hope casted cure on Lightning to heal her after that hard landing "Thanks Hope" she said in appreciation, they noticed that the behemoth was slowly getting back up but Light slammed her gunblade on it's head ending it permanently. They slowly walked to the bulkhead and Hope sat down feeling a bit tired "I wonder how the others are doing?" he pondered "Sazh and Vanille?" Light questioned "Who knows? They'll get caught eventually, then they'll have to choose. Resist or surrender" "Surrender" hope wondered "Do you think he's still alive?" hope questioned with a bit of annoyance emphasising the he. Light turned to see Hope "You mean snow? He's too stubborn to die" she stated "And that's his best quality. He's arrogant and chummy from the get-go. He thinks he's everybody's pal, never liked him much" Hope could sense the dislikeness towards Snow in her voice. "He leads around a bunch of kids a gang called NORA" hope heard this and looked up to Lightning "Where did they get the name NORA?" he asked being curious.

"It's a stupid acronym" she replied "It stands for No Obligations, Rules or Authority. Must be nice" After hearing this Hope stood up and started walking forwards "it's irresponsible" he stated with a bit of anger. The door glowed and he walked through it with Light following behind. They found another elevator and went onto it, Hope pressed the button to start and went downwards. As it stopped they got off and continued but noticed that there are wild animals around. "This is an army facility for turning wildlife into weapons" Light stated as they were observing the animals "Civilians aren't allowed in here are they?" Hope questioned "We''ll have to be sure and tell them if we see any" Hope chuckled a bit knowing that they're not civilians themselves.

The two l'cie went through the animal pens battle by battle fighting crawlers and silver lobos in order to disable each security grid. Their toughest fight was a feral behemoth, it took a major mixture of Hope's synergist protection and ravage magic and Lightning's magic and commando skills to deal with this enemy. Hope casted a lot of cure spells on himself and Lightning to be sure that they're fully healed. They noticed a laser grid disable and an alarm went off. "We've tripped the security alarm, the observation battalion will be coming soon" Lightning warned "Let them come" hope said with confidence and so they continued onwards in order to get out of the animal pens.


	10. Chapter 9 Operation Nora Begins

**Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to square enix for FF 13 but i own any characters i make up and idea twists.**

 **Author's note: Hello readers i have uploaded a new chapter for this story and i hope you all enjoy this one. I would like to thank S** **enninfatih for marking this as favourite. It makes me happy to know there are readers who enjoy my first story. Any reviews are welcome and i would like to hear your opinions :)**

Chapter 9 Operation Nora Begins

The two l'cie got through all the animal pens and climbed up a pillar to reach a platform. They stopped after a few moments and Hope sat on the floor staring at the hunting knife. He was making agitated noises while playing around with it and Light noticed this "What's eating you?" she questioned "Okay I can tell you are hung up on something" "Is it the l'cie thing?" she questioned but she then remembered what he said about Snow and his gang "it's Snow isn't it?" she asked once again this time getting a reaction from him. "What happened with him?" she said as she walked towards him "You wouldn't understand" hope replied back

Light knelt down in front of him "You and I are partners Hope" she stated. Hope looked down before he explained "My mother was killed, because of him" he explained, flashback memories of his mother came showing her getting up, going to snow and falling from his grip. "It's his fault" he said while tapping the knife hilt on the floor. "And he needs to pay for it, I'm not ready yet but I will be. Soon" his voice was filled with determination that his silver started glowing a bit brighter. "That's why I followed you" he said as he stood up then walked past light. "Snow dragged us all into this, you, me, your sister Serah, he's got to pay" his veins shined as he was saying those words. Hearing those words Light knew that one of his goals is to get revenge on Snow. **So his need for vengeance for his mother is one of the reasons why he was chosen to possess his new power, what's the other one I wonder** she wondered.

The two l'cie carried on climbing down another pillar into more animal pens, battle after battle like a never ending cycle until they finally reached another pillar to climb up to reach a platform. Light saw that a sliver leaf was blocking the path so she got her gunblade from her holster and chopped the leaf and it dissipated. "Can I use one of those?" Hope asked. "Bit too heavy for you" she replied while putting her gunblade back. Hope nodded and got the knife out revealing the blade. As light stared at the knife it was reminding her of the day on her birthday when Serah revealed that she was a pulse l'cie and Light pushed her away ignoring her surprising reveal but Snow sticked with her. In addition to opening a present from Serah was a hunting knife and hearing news on the tv stating that a pulse fal'cie was discovered in the Bodhum vestige.

"Serah, I should've listened to you" she said with hint of regret. They continued onward, more battles came in their way improving their strength and magic. Hope and light reached another elevator and used it to get to another platform but this time they found a couple of dead soldiers. "What happened here?" he questioned "They came looking for us and found something worse" Light explained "We can't just leave them like this" he reached for him but Light grabbed his shoulder "Don't touch anything!" she order as she pulled Hope away and he landed on the floor "Control your emotions. If you want to survive, you forget about sympathy" She turned in thought but said "How can I explain?" She turned to Hope and knelt in front of him "Think of it like a strategy. Focus on your ultimate goal and shut out everything else. Still your mind, move on instinct" she then stood up "Let doubt take over, and despair will cripple you" After hearing her explanation Hope stood up calmly

"Strategy good. I'll take anything to help me get through this" Light nodded in understanding as Hope walked forward "I'll call it Operation NORA" he said "NORA?" light questioned "My mother's name" Hope explained "Your revenge?" light asked once again "Yes" hope replied "Don't tell me, I know that killing him won't … bring her back" "I know that!" he shouted as he turned around with his silver veins glowing bright and his emerald eyes shining "But sorry won't cut it" he turned to walk on but Light intervened "Snow didn't kill your mother, the Sanctum did" she reasoned "Who's side are you on?!" he shouted in anger "The side of truth" she reasoned in confidence

"Fine then I'll fight the Sanctum with you, I'll learn to survive" he said as he walked away. Light then stared at the floor. **Those eyes of his look entrancing while they shine. No Lightning don't think like that, he's too busy being filled with anger at the moment** she argued with herself thinking of such things. They pressed on further until they reached a wide circular platform and found a floating object, Hope touched it and the platform was moving upwards until it reached the very top. All of a sudden a creature jumped out of the trees and it appeared to be an Aster Protoflorian. Light got her gunblade out while hope got his boomerang. "This is it, Operation Nora!" he shouted in a war cry while running towards the beast.

He casted Libra on it to find out information "According to the Libra information Light, it changes colour for different elements" "Okay Hope" Light acknowledged. The creature crawled towards them and swiped with it's claws, they were able to dodge the attacks and Hope casted protect and shell on himself and Light "This should give us the extra protection" He casted spells in ravage form while Lightning charged as commando. The Protoflorian felt the impacts of the attacks and changed colour into a white covering and Hope noticed the change "It seems to be covered in ice so we should attack with Fire" Light nodded and changed to ravager.

Both l'cie started to attack with fire damaging the protoflorian. It shuddered feeling the damage but carried on towards the two and bent forward opening its plant on it's back spinning the petals hitting the l'cie. They were both knocked back and hurt but thanks to the protect spell they didn't suffer the full damage. Hope and Light casted cure on each other since Light gained Medic spells. They pressed on casting fire spells but the creature changed colour once again. "It's blue now light so now we have to use thunder attacks" he started casting thunder on the creature drawing it's attention. Light noticed that it was being distracted and ran around it so she was behind it.

Light then striked it with sparkstrikes damaging it from the back. The protoflorian was making noises in anger because it knew that it was being attacked on both sides suffering major damager so it jumped in the air and slammed on the floor with it's claws near Hope. He felt the shockwaves and went flying backwards "Hope!" light shouted noticing him but she didn't realise that the protoflorian kicked her with it's back legs knocking her backwards and landing with a thud. The protoflorian crawled towards Light and was about to strike with it's claw but it felt a harsh thunder attack on it's back. Losing it's balance nearly, it turned around seeing Hope with cackles of thunder coming out of his hands. Hope casted thunder as the creature was walking towards but because of his attacks it was being delayed. Light got up from her and healed herself, she got into her concentration and saw that the creature flipped Hope into the air jumped and slammed him on the floor causing him to be in great pain. She ran in front of Hope and attacked the protoflorian's head with a sparkstrike knocking it backwards. With this chance she healed Hope with cure, at the last moment she noticed a big claw coming towards and blocked it with her gunblade.

Hope woke up from his impact and saw that Light was struggling a bit from the pressure of the protoflorian pressing downwards on her blade. She managed to pushed back the claw with a bit of extra strength but it used it's other one to smack her arm disarming her. Light closed her eyes to feel the smack but nothing happened. She opened her eyes to see that Hope is in fact holding the claw blocking it from attacking her. "Hope what are you doing?!" she ordered "You're my partner Light, I want to protect you as you are protecting me" he explained. He was struggling because of the strength difference but he thought about what operation NORA means to him as well as wanting to protect Light.

This caused him to cry out in anger and his silver veins started to glow very brightly, Lightning could see that he was pushing back the protoflorian holding it's claw. In one final attempt Hope cried out in anger and determination and pushed the protoflorian back sending it flying. The protoflorian landed on the floor with a loud thud, seeing his chance Hope ran towards it, grabbed it's claw lifting it up and slammed it on the floor with a harsh impact. Seeing how strong Hope suddenly became sent a tingling sensation throughout her body causing a pink blush to appear on her cheeks **Since when did Hope get so strong?** she wondered.

But she shaked her head getting out of that trance because they're in battle. Hope casted aero on the ground so he could fly upwards hovering above the creature "Light stab the protoflorian with sparkstrike now!" he ordered. Light nodded, retrieved her gunblade and stabbed the creature with sparkstrike. The protoflorian cried out in pain and Hope casted a thunder spell on Light's gunblade to increase it's damage. With the extra power the sparkstrike managed to transfer it's power through the wound into the protoflorian damaging it from the inside.

This managed to kill the protoflorian ending it permantly and Hope slowly landed on the ground retrieving his boomerang. "Operation Nora, stage one complete" he stated as they walked towards the exit "You did well" Light said as the exit opened. As they were leaving the gapra whitewood she stopped and turned to Hope "What happened back there?" "How were you able to overpower that protoflorian?" she questioned. Hope looked up to her "I guess that's a new power for me" he reasoned. Light widened her eyes in surprise "So like absorption and flight you've got a new power which is super strength" Hope pondered at that statement "I guess so, which means that I'm getting stronger with this" he said as he was looking at his silver veins. "Impressive" Light said complimenting him. Hope heard what she said and blushed a bit "Thanks" he said with a smile.

They continued onward until they reached a cliff seeing a town in the distance "That's it, Palumpolum" Hope stated "That's where you live right?" Light questioned "We'll stop in when we get there" Hope shaked his head in disagreement "No, we're l'cie now and there's no one there but my dad" he reasoned "Hope you need to tell him what happened" Light explained hoping that by doing that Hope would feel much better about his mother's death.


	11. Chapter 10 Palumpolum and An Unexpected

**Disclaimer: Full ownership of FF 13 goes to Square enix but i own characters that i make up and idea twists.**

 **Author's note: Hello fellow readers i have uploaded another chapter for this story. Took me a while to finish this but i hope it's worth it :) I do apologise if it seems too long. Any reviews are welcome and i would like to hear your opinions :)**

Chapter 10 Palumpolum and An Unexpected Turn

Lightning and Hope hid behind a large obstacle noticing a squadron of soldiers "We can make it, get to the station and board the train to Eden" Hope explained "You think it's still running?" Light questioned "Well if it isn't then we'll make it ran" Light was a bit surprised by his statement "Then punch straight into the heart of the sanctum? Now you're thinking like a pulse l'cie" "Well this is operation NORA" hope explained "It's not just Snow that I'm after, the sanctum's gotta pay too" Light had a face of doubt and regret for a moment before hope interrupted her "Hey, you're the one who said that we have to fight" hope explained trying to remind her that she has a goal as well "Every minute we waste, we're tempting fate"

Hope brought his hand up to point in a certain direction "There's some underground tunnels up ahead, I used to play in them when I was a kid. No one uses the entrance anymore so even the army doesn't know about it. We can sneak in right under their noses" "Sounds good" Light replied "Great here we go" Hope confidently said. They moved to another obstacle hiding from the soldier's view "No rivalries now. PSICOM's brought in the Guardian Corps" Light stated noticing the Guardian Corps uniform, "Would it help going stealth Light?" Hope questioned "It may help, being quiet can progress things faster" Light reasoned. Hope nodded "Okay there's an old drainage pipe, we can use it to avoid being seen. The tunnel entrance is a little further up" They both confirmed their motive and planned their movements carefully.

Light looked to see the soldiers on their patrol as they moved in the opposite direction she took the chance to hide herself further onward. She gave Hope a signal to wait because the soldiers were between them. A couple minutes of further waiting the soldiers split and she signalled him to move. He was careful to be sure that he won't make a scene, they entered the drainage pipe to continue onwards. Light got out first to confirm if there were any more soldiers and there was, two in fact. Fortunately one had his back to her so she used the hilt of gunblade to smack him round the head to knock him out. She dragged the unconscious body to the pipe to hide it.

"Good thinking Light sometimes we don't always have to kill" Hope complimented her with a smile, she nodded in appreciation and they moved to cover themselves. The other soldier noticed that his colleague was missing so he pulled a communicator out, noticing this Light quickly caught up to the figure and knocked him out him as well so she dragged his body to their hiding place to hid him. After that they carried on, they saw the tunnel entrance ahead unfortunately a falco velocycle was patrolling the area. "Damn it, the tunnel entrance is just other there" Light pointed out. Hope was deep in thought for a moment until he came up with an idea "I've got an idea, I'll use my power to create a distraction" Light looked at him and nodded.

He looked around for areas to cast a spell at and saw some leaf plants on a hilltop to the right. Using his magic he conjured up a fira fireball in his palm and casted to the far right hill top, with the impact creating flames. The velocycle noticed and went for inspection. Using this distraction they charged for the tunnel entrance coming to an underground complex. "Don't worry, only kids like me know that entrance" hope reassuring light "They'll find it, they'll call in a team and canvas the whole tunnelling system" Light explained "Then we better hurry" Hope retorted back. "So, where's this thing come out anyway?" Light questioned "Well it… it-I'm don't really know for sure" Hope hesitantly replied but Light placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him "We'll find out today"

So they moved onward using a platform to move to another walkway, Hope noticed the large orangey yellow fal'cie spinning in the air slowly in the centre of the tunnel system. "Name's Carbuncle, that's one of our enemies, being sanctum and all" Hope explained Light pondered at this "So, kill him and cut off their food supply, that'll make us popular" she sarcastically ended, hope looked to her in disbelief though "I think people have enough reason to hate us, don't you?" Light looked at him and pondered. "Yeah you're probably right, hungry people do make up for angry people" After their short talk they continued but encountered two flanitors and a lucidon "Uh oh, light have you encountered these guys before?" Hope asked "Not the scale beast but I've seen these flanitors before, they heal injuries" Light replied "So we should take them out first"

"Yep" The two l'cie got in their battle stance starting things off with Hope casting flanitors moved towards them and starting their arms trying to hit them, due to Light's skill she easily dodged them but Hope got hit shuddering backwards. Light attacked one slicing it's body with her sharp gunblade but the other one started healing it "Hope, strike the other one because they use their life force to heal injuries" Hope nodded and slammed his fist on the ground doing his blizzard spike attack. The spikes knocked the flanitor away and Hope casted fira on it. It turned to dust easily because it used it's life force for healing. Light carried on her with her attacks on the other flanitor ending it. Unfortunately she got knocked far back and landed on the floor.

She grunted in pain and turned her head to see the cause and saw that the lucidon attacked her with it's photon charge. She stood back up and started healing herself, she charged for the creature and attacked it but it simply did no damage due to it's scales. Hope casted some spells but no damage. "How do we deal with this one?" Hope questioned "Not sure" The lucidon started charging it's attack but the two l'cie noticed something, as it's charging up it's scales are opened up. "Hope when it charges it opens up it's defence" "Right so it's best to attack when it charges" They both nodded at each other in acknowledgement and stood their ground. Hope started casting fire at the opening and the lucidon started flinching.

Light moved in for aqua and sparkstrikes targeting the opening, the lucidon kept flinching from the pain but released it's photon charge attack hitting hope onto the floor, it bit onto light's gunblade before she attacked and threw her backwards. Hope got up to heal himself and Light then made an angry face "I'm getting annoyed with guy, distract him quickly Light" Light looked at him to question him but thought against it. She started attacking the scales of the beast causing no damage. Using the distraction Hope went around the lucidon and grabbed it's tail. Using his power he casted aero to lift himself up to fly and thanks to his new strength power he was carrying the lucidon with him.

It wiggled it's arms in worry with the sudden and Light just stood there in surprise. Hope flew near the edge holding the tail and started swinging the lucidon. After a good momentum he threw it downwards over the edge never to see the creature again. He took a heavy breath and landed softly back onto the walkway. "You really are getting stronger Hope, you are impressing me more and more" Light said complimenting him. Hope nodded his head in appreciation "Thanks Light, I'm starting to feel it too" he said with a smile. They stared each other for a bit smiling at each other but Light interrupted them by turning around.

"C'mon we need to press on" she ordered "Okay Light" she walked on Hope thought **She has a really nice smile** as he thought that a blush came to his cheeks feeling warm **I'm blushing? I'm not starting to fall for her am i? If I am then I probably shouldn't tell her, she might get angry** , he shaked his and started to catch up with Lightning. Unbeknownst to him Light had a thought of her own **Hope has a lovely feature with that smile joined with those glowing emerald eyes and shiny silver hair** she noticed that she started to blush on her cheeks **Don't think such a thing Lightning, sure he's got a very good luck but he's only a 14 year old** she argued with herself for a bit. Hope stood at her side and noticed that she was in a trance "Uh Light? Are you okay?" Hope questioned. She got out of her faze and noticed hope "Yeah I'm fine, sorry for not focusing" she apologised. Hope nodded in acknowledgement and so they moved forward. They reached a wide circular platform with a good view of Carbuncle.

"Look at us: pulse l'cie, using a sanctum fal'cie to tell where we're going. Sort of strange" "Not really" Light retorted back "We've relied on them our whole lives. The food we eat, the light and water. It's all from the fal'cie" she explained "You know, I think Cocoon was really built for them. The rest of us, we're just leeches, parasites" "You think?" Hope asked questioning her statement "They protect use, nurture us. They take of, well normal people" "They treat us like we're special almost like.." Hope was deep in thought for a moment before he clapped his hands together "Like we're PETS!" Light widened her eyes in surprise to his answer "Like pets?" "To them we are just pets. That's it now it makes sense" she clenched her hands together as she spoke

"I've been so blind. I was born into a fal'cie world, raised on a fal'cie leash. "It was the only life I knew how to live. When it was taken from me, I was completely lost" "Without a master to follow, my life had no purpose" she closed her eyes at the end of her sentence. "Hope, listen to me" she opened her eyes and turned to Hope "This l'cie curse, it took everything from me. My future, my dreams, I didn't want to think. So I fought instead. As long as I was fighting, nothing else was real." She turned to her side "I was running away" she brought her hand up to look at her palm "And you Hope. You got swept along with me" she clenched her fist as she said this.

"But Lightning I don't understand" hope said in confusion. Light turned to him "Operation Nora is over" Hope widened his eyes in surprise "What?" Light tried to talk but Hope walked to her in panic "No! You told me to fight!" he shouted in panic "I made a mistake!" Light argued. Hope stopped "You, you can't do this" he turned from lightning and walked near the edge hiding his face from Lightning. Light saw him standing there and wanted to talk to him to reassure him of things but what shocked her most was seeing his fists clench together and his silver veins started glowing brightly.


End file.
